Abstract. Understanding recent Arctic climate change requires detailed information on
past changes, in particular on a regional scale. The extension of the
depth–age relation of the Akademii Nauk (AN) ice core from Severnaya Zemlya
(SZ) to the last 1100 yr provides new perspectives on past climate
fluctuations in the Barents and Kara seas region. Here, we present the
easternmost high-resolution ice-core climate proxy records (δ18O
and sodium) from the Arctic. Multi-annual AN δ18O
data as near-surface air-temperature proxies reveal major temperature changes
over the last millennium, including the absolute minimum around 1800 and the
unprecedented warming to a double-peak maximum in the early 20th
century. The long-term cooling trend in δ18O is related to a
decline in summer insolation but also to the growth of the AN ice cap as
indicated by decreasing sodium concentrations. Neither a pronounced Medieval
Climate Anomaly nor a Little Ice Age are detectable in the AN δ18O record. In contrast, there is evidence of several abrupt warming
and cooling events, such as in the 15th and 16th centuries, partly
accompanied by corresponding changes in sodium concentrations. These abrupt
changes are assumed to be related to sea-ice cover variability in the
Barents and Kara seas region, which might be caused by shifts in atmospheric
circulation patterns. Our results indicate a significant impact of internal
climate variability on Arctic climate change in the last millennium.